Extremist Groups

The world's most popular online meeting place for white supremacists — a Web-based discussion forum based in West Palm Beach — attracts more than 50,000 visitors on an average day. A paramilitary militia group based in Fort Lauderdale trains and organizes itself to stop an imagined tyrannical "New World Order" conspiracy from taking over the United States. The administrator for a racist website is arrested by West Palm Beach police and charged with four counts of possession of weapons or ammunition by a convicted felon.

The world's most popular online meeting place for white supremacists — a Web-based discussion forum based in West Palm Beach — attracts more than 50,000 visitors on an average day. A paramilitary militia group based in Fort Lauderdale trains and organizes itself to stop an imagined tyrannical "New World Order" conspiracy from taking over the United States. The administrator for a racist website is arrested by West Palm Beach police and charged with four counts of possession of weapons or ammunition by a convicted felon.

Looking for a little Nazi memorabilia -- an officer's dagger, perhaps, or an SS parade flag? A swastika or mint-condition Iron Cross? These, and hundreds of other items, are for sale on eBay, the Internet's largest auctioneer. Is the site simply supplying a marketplace for historic collectibles, or is it, as Rabbi Abraham Cooper charges, "peddling hate?" Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles and engineer of its Cyberwatch project, is well aware that there's a "very significant market" for Nazi paraphernalia and that it's widely available at venues such as swap meets and gun shows.

Hammerskins, Stormfront, Sovereign Citizen Movement, David Irving. If you haven't heard of these names, then you probably haven't been keeping up with the Anti-Defamation League's reporting on extremist groups and individual in Florida. The ADL's Florida region recently made its 2011 report "Extremism in Florida: The Dark Side of the Sunshine State" available online at http://www.adl.org/learn/ExtremismFloriaINSIDE.pdf . And the report was sent to every sheriff and police chief in the state.

Hammerskins, Stormfront, Sovereign Citizen Movement, David Irving. If you haven't heard of these names, then you probably haven't been keeping up with the Anti-Defamation League's reporting on extremist groups and individual in Florida. The ADL's Florida region recently made its 2011 report "Extremism in Florida: The Dark Side of the Sunshine State" available online at http://www.adl.org/learn/ExtremismFloriaINSIDE.pdf . And the report was sent to every sheriff and police chief in the state.

All foreign students studying at Islamic schools in Pakistan will be ordered to leave the country, President Pervez Musharraf said Friday. About 1,400 foreign students are enrolled in madrassas, or Islamic seminaries, some of which have been linked to extremist groups. The foreign students "have to be removed from the country," Musharraf said at a news conference Friday. "Even those having dual nationality. No one in the madrassas will be allowed to spread extremism and hatred in the society."

With the Northern Ireland peace deal now more than a decade old, police intelligence on republican extremists is faltering, which may have helped pave the way for the killings of two soldiers and a police officer in separate attacks in Northern Ireland in recent days, political analysts said Tuesday. Extremists "have been trying to kill police officers and carry out other actions for some time," said Adrian Guelke, an expert on the Northern Ireland conflict at Queen's University in Belfast.

Al-Qaida continues to command an extensive network of well-financed terrorist operatives in 40 countries and has reopened training camps in remote eastern Afghanistan to prepare a new generation of Islamic extremists for attacks against the West, according to a U.N. report. "Let's face it, the sympathy for this organization is actually quite widespread in many countries," Michael Chandler, the chief author of the report, said Tuesday. "New volunteers are making their way to these camps, swelling the numbers of would be al-Qaida activists and the longer-term capabilities of the network," the report by a U.N. committee monitoring sanctions against the international terror movement said.

There should be no place in the military forces of the United States for the ugly racial hatred and extremism that recently surfaced so tragically at Fort Bragg, N.C. Three soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division were arrested earlier this month and charged in the random, cold-blooded murder of two African-American civilians in Fayetteville, N.C. Pvt. Malcolm Wright, 21, and Pvt. James Burmeister II, 20, were accused of shooting the couple to death...

In a country rife with extremism and anti-American rage, officials here not only fear new terrorist acts, they expect them. After the suicide assault on May 8 in Karachi that killed 11 French workers and three others, Pakistani intelligence officials told President Pervez Musharraf that a number of the country's most militant Islamic groups, including remnants of al-Qaida, had agreed to join forces to launch fresh attacks against American targets....

The Extremism and Radicalization Branch, Homeland Environment Threat Analysis Division of the Department of Homeland Security issued a report last week. It's called "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment." Who among us doesn't feel safer already? The problem with it is that it makes little effort to document or demonstrate its contention that "extremist" groups are resurgent, that they are right-wing, or that they may be formed from the ranks of "disgruntled military veterans."

With the Northern Ireland peace deal now more than a decade old, police intelligence on republican extremists is faltering, which may have helped pave the way for the killings of two soldiers and a police officer in separate attacks in Northern Ireland in recent days, political analysts said Tuesday. Extremists "have been trying to kill police officers and carry out other actions for some time," said Adrian Guelke, an expert on the Northern Ireland conflict at Queen's University in Belfast.

By Alexia Campbell and Dana Williams Staff Writers and Staff Writers Dianna Cahn and Joel Marino contributed to this report, February 27, 2009

A "perfect storm" of factors fueled a spike in hate groups across the country and the state last year, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The tanking economy, heated immigration debate and the election of the country's first black president likely pushed up the number of groups, the report said. Florida follows California and Texas with the highest number of hate groups - 56 in 2008 compared to 39 in 2000. Contrary to the growth of groups in the state and country, the number of groups fell from four to three in Palm Beach County.

Several Palestinian extremist groups signed off Wednesday on a Hamas-sponsored temporary truce proposal that the Islamist movement says could bring calm to Israel's southern border with the Gaza Strip and ease the 10-month economic siege of Gaza. But a cease-fire appears unlikely. Israeli officials say it would merely be a pretext for Hamas and other extremist groups to rearm for a new round of hostilities. The Hamas initiative calls for a temporary cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian groups in Gaza.

An Israeli air strike on a militia training camp Friday in the Gaza Strip killed five Palestinians who were members of the Popular Resistance Committees, a group responsible for much of the recent rocket fire into southern Israel. Palestinian medics said four of the men killed in the strike, which was confirmed by Israel's military, were members of one family. One of the men was a brother of Momtaz Dorghmosh, one of the group's commanders, who survived the strike. Israel's military said six rockets were launched Thursday from Gaza into southern Israel, although there were no reports of casualties.

A Dutch court convicted nine members of an Islamic extremist cell on terror charges Friday, but the relatively light sentences and acquittals of five other suspects revealed continuing legal obstacles to fighting terrorism in the Netherlands. The verdicts announced in a heavily guarded courtroom in Amsterdam were a partial victory for prosecutors in the case against the Hofstad Group, which stunned the Netherlands when its leader assassinated filmmaker Theo van Gogh in November 2004. The predominantly Dutch-born militants stood out because of their youth, ferocity and the prominent role of women members in the network.

U.S. Rep. Dan Mica has written financial supporters in Palm Beach County urgently appealing for funds, claiming that "extremist groups outside our district" have targeted him for defeat. The Boynton Beach Democrat claims that organizations such as the National Republican Campaign Committee and the National Conservative Political Action Committee already have begun spending money "for my defeat -- 18 months before my term expires." These groups, he claimed in an interview Thursday, are prepared to spend $750,000 to help extinguish his political career in November 1986.

In his recent profile of Mark Lane, reporter Chauncey Mabe describes the Liberty Lobby as a "far-right political group." It is that and more. The Liberty Lobby is the wealthiest and one of the most active anti-Semitic organizations in the United States. Lane`s association with the lobby has included his defending it in various lawsuits, his writing articles for its newspaper, The Spotlight, and his having served as associate editor for another of its publications, New American View (formerly Zionist Watch.

The meeting, shrouded in the piney woods of east Orange County, started with a round of jokes attacking minorities. A recording of the meeting shows that speeches came next, searing diatribes about the white man's plight. It's the Jews, the attendees barked, and the blacks. And don't forget the Hispanics. As the anger peaked, a flaming, wooden swastika scorched the darkness. "Let's take these [expletive] and get 'em out of our [expletive] land," one man is heard saying in the recording.